The Bill is one of three pieces of legislation aimed at enforcing law and order introduced to the Parliament as part of the Scottish Executive's legislative programme.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, before he addressed the Association of Chief Police Officers' annual conference in Dunblane, Mr McConnell vowed that he would not let critics distract him from his task.

He said: "The criticisms I have seen in the past 24 hours of our proposals to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, not just from local authorities, but from police officers, from social workers, from other vested interests, just show the fact that this is an issue that needs to be tackled.

"Whenever I visit local communities that have got a problem with anti-social behaviour or a problem with crime, they want to see those public agencies and the government that I lead, take more action."

Earlier this week, official figures showed that a record number of rapes were committed last year and that a violent or sexual assault is carried out every half hour in Scotland.

In his speech, Mr McConnell said there was a "crisis of confidence" in the legal system and indicated that the public were frustrated by a lack of police action.

The First Minister emphasised his desire for the police to restore credibility and trust with the public when he drew attention to the feedback he had received from the public on recent local visits.

He said there were "communities where people tell me that there's no point in phoning the police - they can't do anything or they take too long to come or when they do they stay in their car and just drive around."

Mr McConnell said: "I know you and your colleagues do a good job. Ask many people in Scotland and they'll tell you the same. But too many don't think we do enough.

"I'm not talking about the 'big' crime. I'm talking about the persistent, low-level crime and disorder that makes the lives of decent, hard-working families a misery."

He added: "We need to redress the years of decline in respect for the legal system. We need to set a tone that criminal and anti-social behaviour quite simply will not be tolerated in any community in Scotland and we need to tell our young people that there is a difference between right and wrong. All of our public agencies have a vital role to play."